


stay with me

by anonlymous



Series: October Challenges 2019 [13]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sad Magnus Bane, don't blame me the show made it angsty first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-23 16:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21084173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonlymous/pseuds/anonlymous
Summary: Alec says, “I’m not going anywhere.” Alec says, “We always find our way back to each other.” Alec says, “I’m never leaving you again.”It takes everything in Magnus not to screamliar.





	stay with me

**Author's Note:**

> For day 17 of Whumptober, stay with me. Hella angsty because what else was I supposed to do with this prompt?!

_Stay with me_, Magnus says, looking down at Alec’s trembling body under a twilight sky. The world around him is so much colder than the fiery landscape of Edom, and yet he still feels like he is burning. Another part of him torn out, for the second time this hour. 

Alec does stay, Alec lives, Alec heals, and Magnus watches helplessly from his bedside all the while. For weeks afterward, he dreams of that night and pleads, _stay with me_. In those dreams, Alec never does.

_Stay with me_, Magnus hears, in the voice of two different Alexanders. He is bleeding on an office floor, body filled with magic is poison but still better than the hollowness, and Alec is calling for him. He is dancing in the sunshine of a Sunday morning, so light and happy it can’t possibly be real, and Alec is murmuring _stay with me _as Magnus sways and spins out of his arms_._

_Stay with me_, Magnus whispers, on the worst night of his life. His hands tremble the moment they leave Alec’s face, so desperate and afraid that he can no longer conceal the ugly depths of emotion he’s been hiding for weeks. Alexander is the only thing he has left in the world. Pride and dignity be damned, Magnus will do anything to keep him from leaving.

And still, he walks out the door.

(And then – and then Magnus sees the ring, and then Alicante burns and they’re apart again, and then Alec comes for him. Alec marries him. Alec stays.)

Alec says, “I’m not going anywhere.” Alec says, “We always find our way back to each other.” Alec says, “I’m never leaving you again.”

It takes everything in Magnus not to scream _liar._

Stay with me, Magnus has learned, is a futile plea. He watched uselessly as Alec struggled to breathe with an arrow in his ribcage, and it did nothing. Alec called out to him as he fell into a coma, and it did nothing. He begged Alec with everything he had left in him to stay, and it did nothing.

Alec may have returned to him thus far, but there will be a day when he can’t. There will be a day when Alec’s hair begins to grey, as Magnus’s never will. A day when Alec’s knees go stiff, and Magnus remains young and spry. A day when Alec’s memory starts to fade, and perhaps even a day when he will no longer know Magnus's name.

And there will be a day where Alec passes on to somewhere Magnus cannot follow, and the words ‘stay with me’ will do nothing.


End file.
